BBQ and Fitness in Houston

I spent the last week in Houston for business but, of course, managed to pack in social, culinary, and fitness adventures a plenty!

The culinary highlight by far was my first visit to Killen's BBQ, which has taken the Houston BBQ scene by storm over the last two years. To be honest I was pretty skeptical that it would be worth a drive outside the loop and lining up before they opened, but I was willing to give it a shot because . . . BBQ!

I met a couple of friends and colleagues there at 10:30 on Thursday - apparently you have to wait for hours on weekends but weekdays are more manageable. We took a number (which turned out to be meaningless), got in line, and then filed in when they opened at 11:00. Waiting in line outside, we could smell a little of the pecan, oak, and mesquite awesomeness, but it wasn't until we crossed the threshold into the building proper that the aromas really set our salivary glands into action.

Because I wasn't sure when I would ever be back there (and because I was hungry), I ordered every meat they had available: lean brisket (delicious), moist (read: fatty) brisket (more delicious), pulled pork (delicious), turkey (very good but a bit salty), pork belly (aka bacon that hasn't been cured - very tasty but so fatty as not to be my thing), pork rib (kind of underwhelming), jalapeno sausage (delicious), and the pièce de résistance: beef rib. A noted restaurant critic has called the Killen's beef rib "the Mona Lisa of beef" and it did not disappoint. It was the best beef rib I've ever had and much of the rest of the meat was some of the best I've ever had as well.

For sides I had pinto beans and green beans - both very good but not mind blowing. One of the other members of our party shared some of his bread pudding with me and that was pretty outstanding. Overall I have to say that Killen's is definitely a cut above - truly craft BBQ. Craft isn't that important to me when it comes to BBQ, though, so I'm not likely to endure too many long drives and longer waits in line for it. Still, it was fantastic to try - especially that beef rib.

I had ordered so much meat that other people in the restaurant came over to take their picture with my tray. At another time in my life I might have tried to eat it all (including the 2-lb beef rib) in one sitting, but instead I focused on trying a little of everything and then I took a lot home. Like a snake devouring an elephant, I slowly/surely made my way through all the leftovers over the next few days. In fact, I ate so much BBQ that my urine even smelled like smoked pecan, oak, and mesquite - that's a first for me!

</ TMI ALERT>

Saturday I defended my title as Fittest Entrepreneur in Houston. Results haven't been posted yet but, once they are, I will post a blog entry about that experience. Lots of people have heard of carb loading before a big race but have you ever heard of protein loading? Neither have I! But, given my BBQ binge, that's exactly what I did and it seemed to go pretty well for me.

Saturday evening I attended the housewarming party for some former students of mine (all grown up now!), which featured some of my Houston favorites for dinner: Torchy's Tacos, Madras Pavilion, and Bombay Pizza Company - mmmmm!

Then, later in the evening, I joined a former Rice colleague to continue my Barolo education. We did a mini-horizontal tasting of two 2003 Baroli, one from the Barolo region and one from Serralunga. While they both needed some time to open up, they really developed into very, very nice wines - and they paired perfectly with the steaks that my host grilled up. We ate, drank, and chatted about all ranges of topics until about 1 AM - an excellent way to wind down a very active day.

Sunday started with beach volleyball, a real luxury compared to the snow and frigid temperatures Katie was experiencing back in NC. I didn't have much stamina, unfortunately, due to soreness and recovery from the previous day's exertions, but it was still fun to play with one of my long-time partners.

It has been a great week, full of food, wine, fitness, and friends! Now it's back to work as Smart OES will soon be making a very big announcement!

Weekend Getaway to Abingdon, VA

This weekend I spirited Katie away on a surprise trip to Abingdon, Virginia. She has been working hard on her master's thesis so deserves a little R&R - even if I have to impose it on her!

We stayed at the Martha Washington Inn, which began in the 19th century as a women's boarding school but has since been converted to a hotel and spa. We found the Martha Washington to be a very nice facility with the right mix of older charm and modern amenities. It is a multi-level maze of guest rooms, sitting rooms, spa areas, parlors, dining rooms, staircases, and health club facilities. By the end of our stay we had probably only made it to about 40% of all the hallways.

It took about 3.5 hours to drive to Abingdon from Chapel Hill so we arrived Friday late evening. One of my good friends from high school, Matt, and his wife, Angie, drove down from Northern Virginia and met us for the weekend. Once they arrived, we set out and grabbed a light dinner at Bonafire Smokehouse, just down the street. They offered BBQ, craft beer, and live music - not a bad way to start our trip!

Saturday we began the day with a light jog along the Creeper Trail. It used to be a rail line but was converted in the 1970s into a 34-mile pedestrian and bike path. When the weather is nice you can take a shuttle all the way to the other end of the trail - the top of the nearby mountain - and leisurely bike back down, stopping to take in the scenic views. However, the weather was not nice on Saturday - cold and gray with a very biting wind - so we opted for a short run instead of 2-3 hours with the wind in our faces! The highlight of the run was a herd of horses in a nearby pasture that chose to race Katie and show off for Angie while they ran - apparently Matt and I weren't very interesting, though.

A good, short run deserves a good, long meal so we struck out afterward for 128 Pecan, a fun little bistro, for lunch. We thought 128 Pecan was just great and we feel pretty qualified to judge . . . because, between us, we ordered more than half of all the items on the menu! Pimento cheese crab dip, hummus, sesame fried oyster tacos, black bean cakes, blackened salmon . . . I can't even remember everything we ate but it was all delicious! What a great find in a tiny little town.

After walking around historic downtown Abingdon, we returned to the Martha Washington and spent the afternoon relaxing. Although we didn't avail ourselves of the spa services per se, we did take a bottle of champagne out to the multi-level outdoor jacuzzi and let our stresses melt away as it started snowing. There was something so neat about being in a hot, steaming pool of water while the snow was coming down - I'm going to have to visit my Nordic friends some day and give cold weather sauna culture a try.

Saturday evening we met some friends of mine from Huntsville, Alabama, who recently retired to Abingdon, for dinner at Figaredo's. Although we usually prefer to stay as far away from restaurants as possible on Valentine's Day, this restaurant had a nice little prix fixe menu that wasn't cheesy at all. Once again we were impressed by the quality of the cuisine in such a small town. While the snow accumulated outside, the six of us stayed warm with good wine, food, company, and laughter.

Sunday was much colder than Saturday but also much sunnier. We had a reprieve from the snow so, after a morning workout in the fitness center, we drove over to our friends' house for a true country brunch. I had been to that house once before but it was really inspiring to see the renovations that they had recently made.

Well fed as we were, we returned to Abingdon for a matinee performance of Anything Goes at the Barter Theatre. By now we should have come to expect that everything in Abingdon punches above its weight but, once again, we had modest expectations. We were really blown away, though, by the quality of the performance: the singing, dancing, costumes - everything! I suppose that's how this tiny theater has attracted such talents as Gregory Peck, Kevin Spacey, and Ernest Borgnine over the years.

As the weather became ever colder, we decided to stay in Sunday evening so we dined at the hotel's Sisters restaurant. It was a very nice meal including fried chicken and waffles, fried quail, and fried cheese curds . . . notice a pattern?

After dinner we repaired to the library, cozied up to the fire, and took advantage of our favorite Martha Washington Inn tradition: complimentary port in the evenings! Another couple came in and we wound down the night talking politics, careers, and music.

Monday morning came way too early but we needed to be on the road before the next snow storm struck. We made it out OK and didn't encounter any problems on the [heavily salted] highways back to Chapel Hill. Now there is a a layer of snow accumulating on our deck but we are safe and warm inside. We miss our friends already, but we will just have to return to Abingdon sometime soon - and perhaps during warmer weather so we can do all the things we wimped out on during this trip!

First Trip to Oregon

This weekend I took a quick, but very active, trip to Oregon - my first time to visit that state. I arrived Thursday and was met with exactly what I expected from the Pacific Northwest: gray and rainy weather. One thing I didn't expect, though, was that the drivers would not be very good at dealing with the rain. Throughout the trip my driving travel times were increased due to accidents but I would have thought that, in a place where it rains frequently, people would have figured out how to adapt. Not so, apparently.

My trip began in Portland and my first stop was the Nike campus (technically in nearby Beaverton). The Nike campus is really cool; it simply oozes sports. Every building is named for a prominent athlete, sports fields and running trails litter the grounds, and everywhere you look are banners, statues, and busts of even more athletes from every sport imaginable. Although I am not a huge fan of the Nike brand, I had to tip my hat to them when I noticed a bronze bust of Art Monk, one of my favorite football players of all time, as I was walking by. Well played, Nike; well played.

At Nike I had lunch with two friends who work at Nike, one was a football teammate of mine at Rice and the other was an MBA classmate of mine (and Tug of War teammate!) at IMD. As one might imagine, the cafeteria (in the Mia Hamm building) at a place that is so focused on sports is pretty fantastic. I had steelhead trout, brussels sprouts, greek yogurt, and toasted coconut chips - not a bad way to break my fast!

After stopping to see another Rice friend at Nike, I headed to downtown Portland, where I had a reunion with one of my favorite ex-IMD professors. He is still doing cutting-edge research on entrepreneurship so it was very interesting to hear about his most recent findings. However, it was even more interesting to let him take me on a walking tour of Portland's Pearl District, which finished at Blue Star Donuts. Anyone who has read my treatise on nutrition will know that donuts are definitely not part of my nutritional plan. However, my companion assured me that this was one of the places to try in Portland, so when in Rome . . .

He and I shared a peanut butter donut with blackberry compote (delicious) but there were so many other intriguing flavors that I decided to pick up a box of five more (Valrhona dark chocolate, dark chocolate crunch, blueberry crunch, Mexican chocolate, and maple & bacon) to bring as a gift for my hosts later that night. Some of those flavors turned out to be more exciting than others but I was glad at least to try them. After waiting out the traffic (and more accidents), I finally hit the road and made it down to my friends' house in Eugene.

Friday morning my host, who is not only a great runner but also an avid lover of all things running, took me on a running tour of Eugene, which is known as Track Town, USA. We started in Hendricks Park, which overlooks the city, for some scenic trail running. I hadn't had a chance to see "real" Oregon Thursday because I spent the day in urban areas and it was already dark by the time I hit the road. As soon as we started running on Friday, though, I was impressed by just how green Oregon is. Lush grasses, towering fir trees, and moss, moss everywhere. It just really gives the impression that organic life thrives there.

We stopped by Pre's Rock, the location where Steve Prefontaine died, and then made our way down to the heart of the city. During our pilgrimage to historic Hayward Field, we took a lap around the track and ran the [sizeable] stadium stairs. Then we ran across the University of Oregon campus to run along Pre's bark trail - around the football stadium and then along the Willamette River. Running was a fantastic way to see a city that is so prominent in the US's running culture and I'm extremely grateful to my host for organizing such a unique tour.

After a good run, what do you need? Recovery nutrition, of course! So we went wine tasting at King Estate Winery. I'm not usually very big on pinot noir but they had a couple that really won me over. Afterward we stopped by a local fish market and made a nice dinner of fresh seafood.

Saturday we woke up early for a pre-dawn trail run along the Ridgeline Trail. Gradually the big moon made way for sunrise and we were once again treated to wonderful views of the city whenever we emerged from clusters of forest - truly magical!

At this point I left Eugene and drove up to Corvallis, where I would stay for the rest of my trip. Again I was impressed by just how green everything was on both sides of the road and extending as far as the eye can see.

My second Oregon host has been the subject of previous blog posts. He is the proprietor of The SHOP, which recently relocated to Corvallis, Oregon. Still a bit winded from our trail run, I was excited to see the new SHOP location so I made my way directly there. It's a really fantastic facility: high ceilings, open spaces, top-end equipment, and the best bathrooms I have ever seen at any gym! As expected, Drew treated me to an epic workout (normal for him, epic for me). Then we recovered with local craft brew and local-ish (in nearby Albany) fine dining, both of which were excellent.

Sunday Drew took me through another tough workout and then my Eugene host came up to join me for another running workout. Even with all the strenuous activity, I never felt too beat because Drew kept me plied with huge amounts of high quality - and delicious - nutrition.

Monday morning I snuck in one more awesome SHOP workout and headed back up to Portland to catch my flight. This trip really turned out to be a destination fitness fest and I wouldn't have had it any other way. During and between the workouts I spent time with great friends and I got to know - albeit very briefly - the very green state of Oregon. I hope to be back soon!

Death, Remembrance, and Notre Dame

January 23rd is always a day of celebration in my family. It is not only the day that my wife entered this world but also the day my father did - many years earlier. On some January 23rds, however, the feelings of joy are tempered by feelings of loss - the conspicuous absence of a father's birthday party and a father's age that no longer increases by one every year. He would have turned 70 this January 23rd and I, nearing 36 years of age, would have known him for more than half his life and all of mine. Instead I knew him for 11 years before he died, nearly 1/4 of his life and a little more than 1/3 now of mine.

Perhaps due to the milestone birthday or perhaps because we spent January 23rd this year at a funeral, this was one of those January 23rds that carried more mixed emotions.

Katie and I spent the end of this week in South Bend, Indiana, where her father grew up, celebrating the long life of Katie's recently departed grandmother. Thursday we flew into Chicago, where we met up with the rest of Katie's immediate family, and carpooled down to South Bend. The weather was cold, but not nearly as bad as it could have been in this part of the country this time of the year. Because Katie's grandfather had been a professor at the University of Notre Dame, the funeral service and burial would take place on campus. As such, we stayed in a hotel near campus for easy access.

One thing was immediately evident in South Bend: this was a Notre Dame town. Fighting Irish logos were everywhere: on buildings, on jackets, on cars . . . everywhere. Even our hotel was decked out with pictures of Notre Dame sports legends. This was fine by by me as it included many life size likenesses of Joe Montana, my favorite QB of all time. Seriously, though, I thought Chapel Hill was a UNC town or Austin a UT town but they don't come even close to the single-team mentality of South Bend.

Friday we spent much of the day on the Notre Dame campus, where I had never been before. If I had had my druthers, my first trip to Notre Dame would have been for a football game, not for a funeral, but sometimes life has other plans. Katie's father, Chris, was an excellent tour guide on the Notre Dame campus, having spent much of his youth there. If the weather had been nicer I might have taken more time to walk around and explore but we still got plenty of its flavor from inside the heated car.

The funeral mass was held in Notre Dame's basilica, which . . . is . . . BEAUTIFUL! I have been to some of the most spectacular churches in the world and this is definitely one of my new favorites. The deep blue ceilings with starry motifs were really quite beautiful and it struck a good balance between impressive and intimate - a nice combination for ushering someone into the next world.

After the burial, Katie's family was kind enough to indulge me in a brief stop at the Grotto. I had heard of the Grotto when Rice football played at Notre Dame last year and I saw this story about a Rice football player seeking it out after the game. It's a quiet little enclave just below the basilica with candles and prayer benches. Just as the Rice football player had sought it out, it now turned out to be exactly what I was seeking as well on this day of mourning.

I lit a candle for Dad and spent a little time on the prayer bench (which would have made my Nonna happy!) wishing him a happy birthday, letting him know that we still miss him, and encouraging him to seek out the recently arrived grandmother of another January 23rd baby who now brings me so much joy. It was a very nice moment that was really facilitated by the quiet, spiritual nature of the Grotto. A great deal about Notre Dame's campus impressed me: the basilica, the golden dome, the football stadium . . . but the Grotto was my favorite.

At the wake, most of Chris's siblings and extended family joined him in celebrating Katie's grandmother's life. They told stories for hours on end. Some stories evoked laughter, some evoked tears, many evoked both, but all were helpful for the grieving process.

Later that night we went out for Katie's birthday - not necessarily the one we would have planned but a good one all the same. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter which kind of cake you eat or which presents you get; being with those you love and who love you is the best gift of all. And that, of course, is a lesson that transcends birthdays and is even relevant to funerals:

"... The ones that love us never really leave us. And you can always find them in here [heart]."
- Sirius Black, the Harry Potter series

My father continues to live on in the hearts and minds of those whose lives he touched. This includes several friends from his youth who continue to keep his memory alive by sharing stories about him with me, much like the stories that Chris's family shared about their mother.

On this January 23rd I am thankful for so many things: the 11 years I did have with Dad, the friends and family who help me continue to get to know him through their stories, Katie's family for unwittingly helping me work through my grief even as they were mourning their own loss, Notre Dame for having just the right place that I needed when I needed it, and most of all for Katie - we've celebrated 13 birthdays together now and I hope to celebrate many, many more. January 23rd is indeed a day of celebration!

Google Glass

Google officially shut down the prototype version of Google Glass (the Explorer Edition) yesterday. Following are a few thoughts based on my year of being a Glass Explorer (beta user).

First, some context: early in 2014 I received a prescription for eye glasses for the first time in my life. I was told that my eyes were pretty good but that I might like having some glasses around for night driving.

After I got over the crushing blow to my ego by this affront to my once-perfect eyes, I actually became a little excited about entering the four-eyed world. Would I look smarter with glasses? More sophisticated? Cooler? I didn't know but I was intrigued.

To those readers who know me personally it will come as no surprise that I am a tech gadgetophile. From cars to sports watches to speakers, my chief criterion for just about anything I have or use is how much I can geek out on it. Thus my search for technologically advanced glasses led me straight to Google Glass.

Glass takes normal glasses (Originally they were only available with non-prescription lenses but they added prescription lenses at almost the exact time that I received  my prescription - could it be fate?) and adds a heads-up display (HUD), camera, microphone, speaker, and touch pad. It connects wirelessly to the phone in your pocket and acts as a more convenient interface for everything you would normally do on your phone.

The Good
Glass is very handy for conducting the basic triage that you would normally do on your smart phone: reading emails or texts, sending short messages, etc. When your phone receives an inbound message Glass makes a sound and you simply touch the frame or tilt your head back to see the message on your HUD.

This sounds like such a #firstworldproblem but Glass really does save me a lot of pulling my phone out of my pocket. The end result is that I spend less time with my head down looking at my phone and more time with my head up taking in the entire world - I like this aspect a lot.

I find myself messaging more when I'm wearing Glass. For example, if I'm on my way home from work and I have a question for Katie about whether or not I need to pick up something on the way, I just tell Glass to send her a message and the voice recognition is pretty fantastic (I swear it's better than basic Android voice recognition but I have no idea why this would be the case.). Without Glass I wouldn't be able to send any messages while driving so would have to pull over somewhere and whip out my phone or, more likely, just guess the answer.

In much the same way I also find myself taking many more pictures with Glass than I do without it. Glass has a "take a picture" button but you can actually train it to take a picture any time you make a big, exaggerated wink. This has really transformed my picture-taking: instead of having to take my phone out of my pocket, unlock it, hit the Camera app, and then take a picture (again, #firstworldproblems!), I simply wink.

I take more pictures, the pictures I take are more candid/less staged, and I also take pictures for more purposes than I did previously, e.g. snapping a pic of a billboard that's quickly going by on the highway to remind me to follow up on something related later. The camera isn't amazing but it's full 720 HD for both pics and video and the optics are much better than I would have expected.

The killer app for Glass by far is driving navigation. It takes everything that's great about Google Maps navigation and puts it on your HUD. No more glancing down to look at a GPS or your phone; it's right there in front of you showing you where to turn without obstructing your view of the road. Considering that the main reason I was supposed to get glasses was for night driving, this is a huge win.

The Bad
Unfortunately that's the only killer app for Glass. Most Glassware apps are just lightweight versions of apps that already exist on phones. For Glass really to flourish it will need an ecosystem of apps that are not "ports" of pre-existing apps but rather are only possible on this unique platform.

Glass should serve as a good bluetooth headset for calls too but it falls short in this area. I made a few calls with it but the microphone isn't great (The other side often reported having a hard time hearing me, especially if I was in the car.) and the bone-conductive speaker, which ensures that no one else hears what you are hearing, often ensures that you can't hear all that well either. You can plug in an earbud but I found that I almost never took the trouble (another #firstworldproblem - wow, I'm a real brat!) to do that.

Similarly I also never took advantage of Glass for sports. There are Glassware apps that will connect to my sports watch and display my heart rate, pace, etc. on my HUD. Rather than getting my nice prescription lenses all sweaty and dirty, though, I would only take advantage of this by swapping in the more ruggedized sunglasses lenses. This is possible but it takes several minutes and a special tool. If these lenses were more "hot swappable" then I would get more use out of the sports apps.

The final "bad" aspect of Glass is the controversy that surrounds it. Many people freak out when they see Glass because they think it's recording them without them knowing it. This fear is rationally unfounded as A. a conspicuous light shows on Glass whenever it is recording and B. its battery life wouldn't allow it to record much anyway! It would be much easier to record people without their knowledge by using a mobile phone or a GoPro camera than with Glass. But people don't understand Glass so they fear it - understandable but it still brings about some awkward experiences with individuals who are uncomfortable or with businesses that expressly ban the devices.

The Ugly
The worst aspect of Glass to me is that it doesn't "just work." As someone who is often running late, a real benefit of Glass is that I should be able to put it on, use the touchpad to access my calendar, click the event for which I'm late, and have it navigate me there (or just say, "OK Glass, get directions to XYZ.") without any fuss. When it is already connected to my phone, this works like a champ. Maybe it would be better if I wore it all day every day but, because I only wear it occasionally, I often have to spend a couple of minutes reconnecting it by Bluetooth to my phone when I first put it on, which somewhat defeats its convenience.

Also, as I hinted above, the battery life isn't great if you want to do anything other than just the basic messaging. Using Glassware apps, especially those that are always on in the background, really saps the battery life. Battery technology has advanced a great deal in recent years, though, so I would expect a next generation to be better in this regard.

Final Thoughts
So is Google Glass a success or a failure? As a mass market product, it would definitely be a failure. It simply doesn't "just work" enough to be consistently useful. However, it isn't a mass market product. It's a prototype in an open beta and trying to figure out what it could/should be. To measure its success in this light I suppose we will have to see how successful the next generation is as a mass market product.

It is clear that wearable technology as a trend isn't going anywhere so we've got to try-fail-learn if we're going to produce something truly transformative. When I decided to give Glass a try I was inspired by the "jewel" that Andrew "Ender" Wiggin wore during the sequel novels to Ender's Game - an inconspicuous, intelligent, connected device that augmented his capabilities in real-time. Glass definitely isn't there yet but I think it's a decent first shot on goal and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Recent Movie Reviews

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I set a new 8k PR Thanksgiving morning in the Gallop & Gorge road race, ate my heart out for the rest of the day and somehow caught a cold in between. As I have been somewhat under the weather these past few days, I've had ample opportunity to catch up on some movies I've been meaning to see.

Interstellar

I liked but didn't love this one. It was definitely trying to be the kind of epic, artistic, transcendent movie that I would love but it just didn't quite get there. The cinematography was spectacular, the science-informed sci-fi was well done, and parts of it were very compelling. However, some of its subplots were a bit goofy and didn't add much - or even detracted from - the bigger picture. There were times when it seemed to be plodding along a little too indulgently but there were also times when it glossed over important points with forced exposition. It was a good film and I recommend seeing it, but it unfortunately isn't the "2001 for this generation" that it attempted to be.

Predestination

This film was really interesting and had me thinking/guessing right up until the very end - and actually a bit after as well. It was very Memento-like in its non-chronological story telling and it was very well acted. It's hard to be too specific about this movie without giving anything away so it will have to suffice that I recommend it.

Boxtrolls

This movie really surprised and delighted me. It's from the same studio that produced Coraline and is made in a somewhat similar style - although the content is not as dark. It features excellent voice acting, well scripted dialog, a captivating premise, and an engaging plot that keeps you interested until the very end. This will work well for kids and adults alike - heartily recommended.

What do the rest of you think? Disagree with my reviews? Has anyone seen any other noteworthy movies recently?

Chestnut Ridge Trail Race 2014

Yesterday I ran the Chestnut Ridge 4-mile Trail Race for the second time and did pretty well, placing sixth overall and second in my age group.

Chestnut Ridge was the first trail race I ran in North Carolina last year and was it ever a shock to my system. Having been used to flat road races in Houston, my mind was blown by how much different trail running - and especially hilly trail running - was. I finished 10th overall and third in my age group - but at a pace much slower than I was accustomed to running a race of that distance (actually 4.3 miles). On flat roads I might have expected to complete the race in ~28 minutes but I finished in 33:50 instead - big difference! It was evident then that all my pacing and PRs were out the window and I would have to set new expectations.

Having been in NC for more than a year now, I am finally starting to run some races for a second time. This gives me a chance to set course PRs, attempting to improve on last year's performances. It also means that I'm not walking into races blind and I can take a more intelligent approach to race strategy.

This race is mostly single track trails through the woods and around the lake of Chestnut Ridge Camp and Retreat Center in Efland, NC. The trails aren't very technical and they really aren't very hilly either - at least not by NC standards! This year's race was sunny and cold (+3 C or upper-30s F)- great racing weather!

I went out pretty fast to ensure that I didn't have to do too much passing once we hit the single track trails. As I saw my heart rate creeping up, though, I was able to reign it in a bit so as not to burn out. For most of the race there was someone 50-100 meters ahead of me and and I could hear someone(s) 25-50 meters behind me as well. I tried not to be concerned with them and just ran my own race. 

With less than 1 km to go, we emerged from the forest and two cross country boys passed me. They tried to pull away but I hung with them and eventually all three of us overtook the man who had been ahead of me for most of the race. As we neared the finish, I kicked it up a gear or two and surged pass the boys to beat them by a couple of seconds and finish in 32:21.

Setting a new course PR by 89 seconds is pretty good on such a short race. I attribute the better performance to better pacing, more experience running trails, and a higher running fitness level than I had a year ago. Also additional motivation was provided by some of my friends from the Godiva Track Club. They were running the longer distance race but one of them even ran with me for some time.

This was a fun, small race with pretty scenery and a nice route. It served as a good warmup for Thursday's Gallop & Gorge 8k, the final event of the Tour de Carrboro series, where I'm hoping to set another course PR before hitting the offseason!